So Who's Less Clothed?

Will X. Walters, who was arrested and jailed for public nudity at the July 16 Gay Pride event, is making a cogent case that he was less scantily-clad than the women who wear G-strings at the Over-The-Line tournament, and are ignored by police. "This is patently unfair and in violation of [the] Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," says Christopher Morris, Walters's attorney. Morris took his client's complaint to the police, who "circled the wagons; we didn't get sufficient resolution, so we filed the claim." Morris is asking for $150,000 plus attorney fees. He has to wait six months for the police to answer the claim. If he doesn't achieve Walters's exoneration, along with the monetary damages, Morris will initiate a federal civil rights complaint.

At the Gay Pride event, Walters's "genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus or anal region were fully covered by opaque material as required by San Diego Municipal Code Section 56.53(c)," writes Morris in the complaint. Then he submits pictures of young ladies at Over-The-Line who certainly do not appear to be concealing some of the same body parts.

Before he was arrested, Walters was granted a "grace period," in which he could go home and dress more appropriately. "As Mr. Walters was on foot, lives in Point Loma (a good two-hour walk away), and would be fully visible to the public on the way home, such a 'grace period' seemed unrealistic given the charge," says the complaint.